To begin with, I will group carp and catfish together, because many anglers catch both or target both and seek the biggest ones possible. These fish share so many dietary essential requirements that baits meant for big carp or catfish will often catch specimens from each group. Carp and catfish are like swimming tongues because they are covered in receptors cells inside and out that maximise the ability to detect potential many food substances in concentrations as low as 1 part in a million or even 3 parts in a billion!
A human smelling a bait in air is more than a little different to a fish detecting the bait in solution in water and for this reason many anglers simply choose the baits and substances they use from their personal perspective; not really appreciating how a bait and its substances impact upon fish senses directly or indirectly to various degrees between different baits and their components! Fish use cells literally outside their bodies as well as familiar nose and internal mouth and also throat cells too for instance, to detect potential substances in water. The systems fish use to detect your bait are so very impressive and sensitive that you would be a fool not to find out how to exploit them to the maximum and make catching your fish so much easier, for life!
Carp find many potential food substances including your baits by using cells adapted for the purpose which are extremely sensitive to essential substances especially, like various combinations of amino acids. The cells that detect very many substances are located externally in the facial skin, areas of the head and flanks, the lips, fins, in the nose, the barbels, in the mouth, throat and other lesser known significant areas too! The so-called receptor cells are very sensitive and so can detect oils in water not supposedly water soluble, however, even these are to a small degree and using lecithins with oils obviously improves their detectability and attraction!
Apart from cells involved in chemical detection in the water better known in olfaction and chemoreception, there are many others, such as the specialised lateral line pit cells. These continue from the tale, along the flanks and down around the eye and along the bottom of the jaw ending very near the mouth. These are so vital to Cyprindae fish for example, that the jaw of these fish is shaped to allow this distribution of nerves and sensory pit arrangements from millions of years ago in their evolution.
Over all the various systems and their different functions combined act like a biological radar system and enable the fish to be as aware as possible of its surroundings. Fish can detect the surrounding water oxygen concentration or dissolved carbonic acid concentration in various times of year and seasons. A lowered carbonic acid concentration in water on the end of a strong oxygenating warming south-westerly wind in the UK for instance, can often lead to fish preferring the water conditions where the bank faces this wind.
Your bait substances in solution (in the water) are detected by many various cells not least by the vital barbels covered in very high densities of receptor cells that help carp locate and identify potential foods (and threats too!) Your bait is very much more effective if it pumps out high concentrations of stimulatory substances that are easily dissolved or imbibed by water, and so much more easily detected by fish olfaction and chemoreception systems (and by others too!)
Fish will track-down your bait by following the concentration gradients of substances leaching outwards from your baits. Making the most of bait produced concentration gradients in many ways really gives you the edge, and making your own baits and ground baits, and being able to adapt ready made ones for this purpose especially is such a massive edge! A bait packed with many of the essential dietary requirements of carp will give carp far more reason to pick-up your bait and actually consume it compared to many baits with much less vital reasons on offer, and you can boost this effect in many extremely potent ways in your homemade baits and ground baits or in any ready made boilies, pellets, particle baits etc...
Carp and catfish senses are the key to manipulating their feeding and location behaviours in your favour and anglers who truly appreciate this often make catching great numbers of fish look easy and are able to certainly gain huge advantages over other anglers competing baits and their methods of application by constantly adapting with the fish! Many leading anglers truly appreciate how to leverage and adapt their baits because they know enough about exploiting carp senses and behaviour to do this and often to maximum effect, and it costs you very little to multiply your catches for life when you find (and utilise) the right information!
By Tim richardson.
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